Moody Blues SACD's on spincds.com

Music Direct shows February 2006 release date.

 

Oh man, I'm going to jump on these like they are hot. I'm glad that I only have the DOFP 80s CD, and that I didn't try to seek out the others.

 

Yes, and it does make one wonder what tweaking they will do. As Justin himself mentioned on his site, he went back to hear the original QUAD masters, NOT remixes from the multis(which still exist). The reason being, they were more than satisfied with those mixes, and to this day the group saw no need for extensive remixing. Which is fine, though how they create the center channel might be interesting, might just be a 'faux' channel summing a little from LF/RF. We shall soon find out, which is great news!

No mention of the original album mix, unfortunately...

 

From what I've read, there are no NEW mixes - they are just using the original quad mixes on everything except "Lost Chord."

I can't see why they can't dig a copy up somewhere...

 

They could do that very easily: they could take all the L+R (mono) information in the left and right channels and send it to the center channel. Then, the left and right channels would contain only the L-R (stereo) information, and the center channel would contain the mono information that previsous was directed to both the left and right channels.

If they want to stay true to the quad masters--which it seems like they are stating--they will probably just ignore the center channel (and the LFE channel) and have no information going to it. I.E., a "dummy" or unused channel in the multichannel mix, just like what the Living Presence and Living Stereo SACD's do with the surround and LFE channels.

 

Hmmm . . . I guess I'm in the opposite boat.

If anybody wants to unload their Moody Blues non-remastered CD's, PM me. I'm not holding my breath for the SACD's. I am looking for On the Threshold of a Dream, To Our Children's Children's Children, and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour. Thanks!

 

I'm not saying I won't get these eventually, and I might still get them if the reviews on the SACDs aren't stellar, but you have to admit this is great news.

 

Like a few people have mentioned, it would be nice if these showed up eventually as domestic U.S. releases.

 

The '80's CDs weren't great, the late '90's CDs weren't great - hopefully these will be just right!

 

I will be calling Music Direct at 9:00 this morning. If they have that SACD in stock I will get in my car and make the 40 minute drive to their store and pick it up.

 

I called Music Direct this morning. They said that their web site is incorrect---they do not have the SACD in stock. I was told that they are taking pre-orders and that "Days of Future Past" (SACD) should be in stock in March. They said that it will be an import.

 

My 80's CD's sound fine. I have heard the 90's remasters and they do, indeed, suck eggs. I agree it's great news these are going to be out on SACD, but I am reluctant to believe these reports until the SACD's are actually offered for sale. I have seen a LOT of vaporware SACD releases, as I am sure everyone else has. Still waiting on Floyd, Rush, 'Dan, etc. SO, in the meantime, I'm looking to complete my 80's CD collection.

 

Ed, for a moment there I thought you had said 'expensive' remixes, not 'extensive' (At least the production costs in these albums seems to be low. After all they did the quad mixes a zillion years ago). I imagine they mention 5.1 - even if the recording is quad - because it is what people understand today. Don't be surprised if you can hear nothing from your center speaker on these albums.

 

I can live with that. too often the center is crammed with info (Avalon). A good phantom center works well.

 

I think it is interesting to see what happens in the next few months with new rock releases. There are very good quad mixes (although there are also some that are not very good) that could be ported directly to HiRez and probably keep the formats alive with very little expense on the part of the record companies. This, I believe, is what makes classical music thrive on SACD (often no royalty and other costs when the recording is old). It is also interesting to see Universal stepping back into the rock arena with HiRez. I hope they keep it up. Many of their pop/rock releases of recent years on both SACD and DVD-Audio have been some of the best.

 

They've corrected the date to be March 06 (probably still wrong). They also corrected the price to now be $34.99. ($5 increase). Well, I think we're all buying them directly from the UK anyway.

 

These are also up now on CD Universe and Amazon UK. I pre-ordered mine thru Amazon as it seems to be the best deal. 11.99 and 14.99 UK Pounds pre-order. CD Universe is $30.15 and $35.39.

 

I got home feeling blue after an evil day at work. I've ordered all 5 of them.

 

Well, SACD or not (I'm crossing my fingers!), this seems like a good opportunity for me to finally check out some Moodies. I had Days of Future Passed back when I was 13 and dug it then, but eventually grew *very* tired of it, and kind of thought it was a little too cute and fey. But maybe my memory is off?

Regardless, it stopped me from checking out anything else by the Moody Blues. But I did hear some stuff in a record store that perked my ears up - it may have been off of In Search of the Lost Chord. Which albums should I check out first? I *love* that whole era of music in general, usually lean towards guitar-oriented stuff, but certainly not exclusively.

 

I love it. Single mixes and A Simple Game as bonus tracks! I'm there!

 

Somebody please explain to me one last time why the Moody Blues remasters from the 1990's are so bad. My only original CD is DOFP and that doesn't sound much different from the remaster IMo. But of course, it's a remix and probably not the best title for comparison. My point is that music remastered from a high generation tape has certain audio qualities that the Moody's remasters don't seem to have. Are they really from "copies of copies"? Are we really going to hear such a drastic improvement on the stereo mixes when these SACD's come out?
And what about those MFSL CD's that people either love or hate?
Bob.

 

I don't think the 90s remasters suck by any means, though I prefer the originals now that I've heard them all. I also like the MFSL ISOTLC, Threshold, and Seventh Sojourn.

 

Does anyone know if DOFP will be the remix or the original mix?

 

Thanks Mike. Perhaps I'll check out an MFSL title just to have something to compare to the remasters. I would bet that DOFP is the remix. The master tape of the original mix is apparently ruined and the fidelity of the remix is better despite the annoying diffrences. When I first heard the original mix on vinyl, I thought it sucked and said so in another thread some time ago. Now, I'm quite used to it and prefer it for certain tracks such as Evening.
Bob.